When Société Générale Moçambique (SGM) opened a gleaming new headquarters in Maputo in March, the ceremony marked not only a new phase in the French group’s expansion in sub-Saharan Africa, but also a demonstration of confidence in a country that has been battered over the past two years by an economic downturn, a debt crisis and two bank failures.
Speaking at the inauguration, Alexandre Maymat, the head of African operations at Société Générale, said SGM planned to grow through a two-pronged strategy of mobile banking and extending its retail franchise across Mozambique, adding that Africa could become a model for more mature, developed economies in the deployment of mobile banking technologies.
